You are what we believeeven if we know betterseeing is believingthough you write backwardsyour left our rightso that we never can read youif there is any messagedirected toward us from

the other side which wecannot touch cannot reachand can see only from herewhere there is something you seemto be showing us overand over again withouta sound as though you werethe light itself returning

They know so much more now aboutthe heart we are told but the worldstill seems to come one at a timeone day one year one season and hereit is spring once more with its birdsnesting in the holes in the wallsits morning finding the first timeits light pretending not to movealways beginning as it goes

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Ronni Bennett writing at Time Goes By raises a good question on elder drivers and should age be the factor in determining issuing a license to drive:

As the number of elders increases dramatically in the next few years, there are questions all elders, and local governments and communities, need to consider: Should a different kind of testing be required for elder drivers? If so, at what frequency? Should there be a standard cutoff age for driving in later years as we have for teenage beginning drivers? Are there medical conditions that should automatically require revocation of driving privileges? Should there be an age at which license renewal by mail is no longer allowed?

In the comments, I posed the argument that age should not be the single factor, nor should there be a single factor in determining a license.

I would further propose that the license be granted upon successful completion of the following for anyone and everyone who seeks to obtain a license:

1 - financial wherewithal; proof of ownership of said auto and proof of insurance

2 - basic driving skill; annual written & driving test up to 21, bi-annual written & driving test to 55, and a return to an annual written & driving test thereafter

3 - validation of physical fitness to be capable of driving (with legitimate exceptions for handicap individuals in vehicles with adjustments for their handicaps)

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Did not have a good run today. Did have a decent day at work but had to drive to Boston, then to Marlboro and then home to do so. That may have been a factor, combined with a late night last night, so I may have just run out of energy.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

I drove the van about 200 miles today to take both sets of grandparents to Assumption College to hear Allie sing with the Chapel Choir. They performed parts of Handel's Messiah closing with the Halleluiah Chorus. It was worth every minute of it.

My pillow is calling me but my head will be reveling in the notes for a while.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

I was wondering what happened to CoComment. When I pulled up my own pages, the CoComment section did not fil in. When I tried to use CoComment, I got nothing in response. No error message, no nothing.

Now, I finally find this posting on their own blog:

We current face massive DNS problems to www.cocomment.com. We are currently hosting our DNS as joker.com and they issued the following statement

Joker.com currently experiences massive distributed denial of service attacks against nameservers.This affects DNS resolution of Joker.com itself, and also domains which make use of Joker.com nameservers.We are very sorry for this issue, but we are working hard for a permanent solution.Thank you for your understanding.

Unfortunately, we are also affected by this and cocomment.com is thus often not reachable from various locations. We are currently trying to move our DNS to another hoster, but that unfortunately takes time and as joker is quite busy its probably even harder than usual.

We are really sorry about this and apologize for any inconvenience you encounter. We hope the situation goes back to normal soon.

They have my email address. They could have sent me and each other user an email. Email is still functioning.

Maybe next time. (Oh, and while I hope there won't be one soon in this technical world, something will happen.)

Let's assume you wanted to foster a sustainable and vibrant community over time, and you wanted to be publicly accountable to that goal along the way. What would you do? The city of Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia, came up with 13 indicators of what they believed to be a sustainable community, and then dared to publish their progress for all to see. The Sustainable Community Progress Indicators (SCPI) project is an attempt to focus the efforts of a city and its citizens toward making real progress.

There are four myths about teams which are particularly deadly because each of them is nearly true.

Myth1: Talent is the most important thing in any teamMyth2: The teams goals won't suddenly change without anyone realising itMyth3: 'Collaboration' means basically the same thing to all team membersMyth4: You should always play 'win-win'

All I can tell them is that blogging forces expertise. You must read and interact in order to have something to say. If you don't want to have something to say, don't blog. And don't read blogs. Sure, you can read trade publications, but the act of blogging enforces a deeper thinking of your craft. It's hard to blog about something that you haven't grappled with and come to a conclusion on in some way.

One of the most interesting things discussed in the Time article is that neuroscientists have established the specific area of the brain responsible for context switching. And unfortunately for some of us, it appears that this part of the brain performs less well as our brain ages. In a nutshell, the older we get, the less quickly and effectively we can multitask. But... most parents of teenagers already know that we have no frickin' idea how our kids manage to do what they do simultaneously. The key issue, though, is that while we now know they're better at it than we (the parents) are, they aren't half as good at it as they think they are.

Best in class falls between these two goals. It is not sufficiently differentiated to be unique, and thus it does not create bargaining power. But it goes well beyond the minimum acceptable standard, which means you have spent a bunch of resources beyond what you had to and achieved no economic return for so doing!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Via Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By comes the link to ego surf which combines a Google search on your name and your blog, and produces points on a speed dial quickly. For what its worth, my results look like this:

It's a numbers game. If we ALL participate, we will break into Technorati's Top 40 Favorites by the end of the week-end.

Technorati is currently tracking more than 30 million blogs. The Corner on National Review Online, No.100 on Technorati's Top 100 (by links), has more than 12,700 links from 2,400 sites. Generating these kinds numbers takes time. This is your opportunity to shortcut evolution.

GENERATE MOMENTUM FOR 100 BLOGGERS AND THEY WILL GENERATE MOMENTUM FOR YOU!

I wrote earlier about how wrong Technorati was in depicting the status of the blogs I put on my favorites listing. I added 48 and at the time, most of them were reported to have been updated several days ago. This status was wrong. These are my favorites and one of the reasons for them being my favorites is that they are active and update with fresh content almost daily in most cases and several times daily in a good number of cases.

I just went through the listing of the 48 and by a rough calculation only 11 of the statuses are "correct". That is a 25% success rate. Now, my view of the blogosphere is a small view but if this is a random sample and only 25% is accurate, then why should we trust any number from Technorati! 25% in baseball is a so-so hitter. In technology, if you're not in the 5 9's range, you should be toast.

Disclaimer on rough calculation - it says "updated". When I visited the blog, if the posting was date/timed within the time frame, it was marked as correct. If it was in the ball park, I marked it correct. Given variances in time zones and time zones settings for blogs, and Technorati's process for crawling and updating, there can be some squishiness here.

But let's single out one for a prime example: the Worthwhile blog. According to Bloglines, it has 260 subscribers. The activity is regular and since it is a group blog, it is rare that a business day goes by without a single posting. So what is Technorati's status for it? It should say it was updated within some number of hours or at most, one day ago? No, it has no status.

Can you do a similar audit of your own favorites? What does it show? Maybe my sample is all wet but I'd like to know.

Now that we know blogging is good for us, here is some great brain food from Frank Paynter via Norm Jensen's posting on The New Math:

New Conversion Table

1. Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

2. 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton

3. 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

4. Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond

Be sure to click through for the full listing. Be prepared for a belly full of laughs.

Via Kate at 800-CEO-READ-BLOG comes this inside story on the famous (or infamous) cubicle. I was once a cubicler but was fortunate to have a phone booth type office for the past couple of years and apparently am headed back to cubicleville so I found this was most enlightening.

The cubicle was not born evil, or even square. It began, in fact, as a beautiful vision. The year was 1968. Nixon won the presidency. The Beatles released The White Album. And home-furnishings company Herman Miller (Research) in Zeeland, Mich., launched the Action Office. It was the brainchild of Bob Propst, a Coloradan who had joined the company as director of research.

After years of prototyping and studying how people work, and vowing to improve on the open-bullpen office that dominated much of the 20th century, Propst designed a system he thought would increase productivity (hence the name Action Office). The young designer, who also worked on projects as varied as heart pumps and tree harvesters, theorized that productivity would rise if people could see more of their work spread out in front of them, not just stacked in an in-box.

The new system included plenty of work surfaces and display shelves; partitions were a part of it, intended to provide privacy and places to pin up works in process. The Action Office even included varying desk levels to enable employees to work part of the time standing up, thereby encouraging blood flow and staving off exhaustion.

- Dominant mindset: is it AJAX, is it RSS, is it geo-located, does it have an API, does it plug into Google Maps, is there a tag cloud? Several people walked out of my session when it became clear that Gootodo had none of these.

- I'm always reminded at events like these - the technology industry is about building technology and selling it; not primarily about improving users' lives. (Again, with some exceptions..)

- The tech industry isn't particularly for or against improving users' lives - it's just not the primary agenda. Cool gadgets, big sales numbers, hefty IPOs - those are the primary goal; genuinely helping users to be more productive is a possible nice-to-have side effect.

- So what do we call the group of people, companies, projects that are primarily about improving users' lives through better technology? The "good experience tech industry"? (GETI? That's not a keeper, just a first draft...) I'm open to suggestions.

Jason says that it’s great to start thing up “on the side.” This is how 37signals started Basecamp. He points out that obscurity is good for getting started so you can screw up & learn from it before every one is watching.

He says “less” is an asset.1. Less time. You’ll just waste it anyway.2. Less money. See above.3. Less software. Keep it simple “Clever stuff” gets in the way.

... it’s all made up anyway. It’s human nature to fill in blanks when we don’t have all the data. So why not make up that it’s something that will change the world for the better? It’s the same amount of work, and you get more accomplished.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

I get to take a walk with Dolores. This gives us some prime time to review our stuff, discuss the schedule of the week ahead (yes, we plan ahead sometimes, although I have been accused of not paying proper attention to some items), and stop for coffee to walk with on our last mile home.

I get to catch up on some reading, writing, blogging, etc.I get to mix all this in with my family/household chores (cleaners, food shopping, house stuff, etc.)

Friday, March 10, 2006

Lately I've been having a lot of sidebar discussions with readers about finding that way to make a living at the intersection of What You Love (your passion), What You're Good At (your gift), and What's Needed (your purpose). Knowing your Genius (where your gift and passion intersect -- areas 2 & 3 in the above chart) is helpful in providing focus -- it helps you to set aside self-indulgences (things you love but are not acknowledged as very good at by others) and unfulfilling options (things you're acknowledged as very good at, but don't really have any passion for).

Be sure to click through to read the full posting and ponder the venn diagram. Helps tell the story quite well!

From Johnny Moore (pdf) at Brand Autopsy comes this endorsement of a book on the Laws of Lifetime Growth by Dan Sullivan and Catherine Nomura along with some "snippets to gnaw on". Here is the tenth law. It caught my eye. (Actually, each of the nine before did and I waited until the last one this, to copy it here. They are all that good!)

LAW TEN:Always make your questions bigger than your answers.“ … all growth lies in the territory of the unknown. What we already know is in the past. What we have yet to discover is the future. Always make your questions bigger than your answers and you’ll keep drawing yourself into a bigger future with new possibilities.”

Be sure to click through to read the full posting and the nine other snippets.

Malcolm Gladwell writing on his new blog provides his Thoughts on Freakonomics. I read Blink and like it alot. Freakonomics is on my To Read listing but I have followed their blog for some time. Malcolm gets into the differences between the arguments Freakonomics uses and the one he put forth in Blink:

So why is he so anxious to discredit Broken Windows? One—understandable—explanation is that he makes his own argument more compelling by dismissing all other arguments. (I know all about this tactic. I do it all the time). But a deeper explanation, I think, has to do with the difference between the perspective of economics and the perspective of psychology. Levitt is very interested in the root causes of behavior, in the kinds of incentives and circumstances that fundamentally shape the way human beings act. That’s the kind of thing that economists—particularly behavioral economists—think a lot about. And rightly so: who we are and how we behave is a product of forces and influences rooted in the histories and traditions and laws of the societies in which we belong.

Steel over stone. Fat over bone. Excess over lack. That has always been the natural human aspiration. This has led to mistakes, which is human nature too, but retrogression is not human in nature. The solution is improvement, as it always has been. And the simpler the improvement, the better. Simplified progress. Progressive simplicity.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

This question is getting some attention. Since Rosa Say posted the initial challenge to the blog Synergy on Sunday, there have been some comments and postings providing different perspectives on this topic.

So let me put in my two cents.

I like to use the analogy of the three legged stool to represent a business. That is, a business needs to effectively combine people, process and technology. But while the three legged stool works well to show an equal proportion for each of the components (otherwise, it wobbles) it lacks another dimension, in particular that of time or motion. The chair (i.e. business) moves. The business does not stand still. So let's shift gears a bit and use a bus to depict the business.

The bus still needs to operate with an effective combination of people, process and technology. That does not change. So now, the bus driver is the company leader. In this case, he is not just any leader. A great leader is one who knows how to get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus (hard decisions some times), the proper technology to enhance the business processes, and the right processes to serve the customer. The great leader also knows how to drive the whole bus forward. The great leader knows how to navigate through the maze of roads, or even venture forth into off-road areas.

FastCompany republished or more correctly brought to back an article originally published in September 2005 on Three Ways of Great Leaders. Two Harvard Business School professors (Mayo and Nohria) found in their study

... these business masters had more than their fair share of what Mayo and Nohria call "contextual intelligence." That is, they possessed an acute sensitivity to the social, political, technological, and demographic contexts that came to define their eras. And they adapted their enterprises to best respond to those forces.

You can call it "contextual intelligence" or inspiration or insight or some other term but the great leader recognized an opportunity. Someone in the market place, possibly a significant portion of the market, had an unmet need. The great leader recognized that and figured out a way to meet that need. The great leader got the bus, loaded the right people, process and technology and set forth to meet that need. Without that recognition, there is no purpose for the bus!

Initially, there may not even have been a road to drive on. But the great leader got the bus going. There were other challenges along the way. You can use your imagination here. Bottom line, the great leader kept the bus going. The great leader kept the people focused (challenged, rewarded, etc.), the processes (adjusted as necessary), and the technology (updated or enhanced as required) to meet their customers needs and the bus kept rolling.

Vision alone won't take the great leader far.Persistence alone in the face of great odds won't.Recognition alone of the opportunity won't.

It is the combination of these that the great leader needs to address on a regular basis to keep the bus (people, process and technology) going to successfully meet their customers needs.

I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told.I have squandered my resistance,For a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.All lies and jest.Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.

When I left my home and my family I was no more than a boy,In the company of strangers,In the quiet of a railway station, runnin' scared.Laying low, seeking out the poorer quarters,Where the ragged people go.Lookin' for the places, only they would know.

Lie-la-lie ...

Asking only workman's wages I come lookin' for a job,But I get no offers,Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue.I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome,I took some comfort there.Oooh la, la, la ...

Li la li...

Now the years are rollin' by me, they are rockin' evenlyAnd I'm older than I once was, younger than I'll be, that's not unusualThough it isn't strange, after changes upon changesWe are more or less the same, after changes we are more or less the same

Li la li ...

And I’m laying out my winter clothes, wishing I was gone, goin’ homeWhere the new york city winters aren’t bleedin’ me, leadin’ me to goin' home

In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade,And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down,Or cut him 'til he cried out in his anger and his shame,"I am leaving, I am leaving."But the fighter still remains.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Just loaded my favorites in Technorati and was surprised with the results.

No, not with who was listed! These are my favorites. They provide me sustenance on a regular basis. I get much food for thought from reading them. So when I see that Technorati says they have not been updated in 2, 3, and many more days (Worthwhile is listed with no update!) then I know something is wrong with Technorati.

When you're weary, feeling small,When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;I'm on your side, when times get roughAnd friends just can't be found,Like a bridge over troubled waterI will lay me down.Like a bridge over troubled waterI will lay me down.When you're down and out,When you're on the street,When evening falls so hardI will comfort you.I'll take your part when darkness comes,And pains is all around,Like a bridge over troubled waterI will lay me down.Like a bridge over troubled waterI will lay me down.

Sail on silvergirl,Sail on by.Your time has come to shine.All your dreams are on their way.See how they shine.If you need a friendI'm sailing right behind.Like a bridge over troubled waterI will ease your mind.Like a bridge over troubled waterI will ease your mind.

I like Paul Simon a lot. He is one of my favorite singers. While I grew up listening to him and Art, I had only purchased their "greatest Hits" and then was smitten with "Graceland". My daughter danced in my arms to "You can call me Al" (her name was Allison). My wife and I caught Paul and company in a live outdoor concert in Holmdel, NJ. It was a wonderful evening.

That much said, this book left me wanting.

If as the cover blurbs, Linda Jackson is such a great writer on celebrities, how come she never talked with Paul?

While I did learn some good background info on Paul, the writing style was more like watching a profile on VH1. You know where they always recap before the break away for commercial, and then recap again when they comeback. Somewhat annoying.

It was a fairly quick read and I did make it through it but it would not be high on my list of recommendation to anyone.

The purpose of Hitchhiker is to create a simple post to share another blogger site that has been "found" in your explorations. Preferably the blogger would be part of the "long tail". But the blogger site would be doing something different or in an interesting way.

The blogosphere is a giant time capsule that offers a panoramic view of our world. It is a collection of personal expressions that represent virtually every human perspective of our times. It is filled with millions of personal accounts, diaries, essays, stories and photos. It is filled with art. It is filled with emotion. It is filled with thought. It is our collective conscience. Better than any collection of books or articles, the blogosphere will capture the story of our existence.

You can send the file in HTML format or Word doc, or whatever is convenient for you. If I have trouble working with it, I'll let you know.

I'll post the note, provide you with credit, tags, and a link so you can reference it.

If you would like to do this on a regular basis, then let me know and we can work out the details.

PS - one other important item, the posting should be positive. There are so many blogs in the world we should focus on the ones that should have the light shine upon then. There is no need to "reward" those that do not need deserve this light.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

I spent some time earlier this week to write a longer post. It got drafted quickly the first day. Edited after sleeping on it. And still edited further on the third day. I think it came out very well.

This is a different kind of writing than I normally do here (and my other blogs). Most of my posts are written and revised within usually just a single sitting and published that same day. That has been my modus operandi for the time I have been blogging.

I don't mind the daily writing. I think I do quite well with the short ones. But I like the feeling of the longer one. I think I need to do that more often.

I will accept the 37Days challenge in intent. Patti normally crafts her writing over the course of a week and hence her challenge is to let it go more frequently, i.e. once each day for 37 days. My challenge will be do write a longer post once each week for the 37 day period. (Somehow once each week for 37 WEEKS, is too much at this point.)

Ultimately, the writing needs to make a point and convey it well enough for someone to understand. Long or short doesn't necessarily make it better or worse, as long is the point is made.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

When it comes to appreciation of writing, I'm a believer that less is more. I prefer poetry and short stories to novels, and essays and short books over long books, and I'm prone to copy down précis and favourite passages and quotes from great books and then give the books themselves away. When I find great ideas or expressions of emotion or word pictures that contain only the number of words they absolutely need and no more, I cherish them. So I got to wondering: What is the greatest single paragraph ever written?

This from Dave Pollard at How to Save the World. Dave goes on to provide some samples of what he proposes are good writing and while this is not a contest, he is soliciting suggestions. You can read the full post here.

A tough assignment should you chose to accept it. I may come up with several passages but no single one of them should be considered the greatest of all. Each of us has our own voice and the passage is a reflection of that voice, that self.